Earth Science – 3rd Quarter Exam Study Notes
1. A landform that has high elevation and a more or less level surface is a plateau.
2. The process by which natural forces move weathered rock and soil from one place to
another is called erosion.
3. In deserts, deflation can sometimes create an area of rock fragments called a desert
pavement.
4. It would always be easy to walk up a slope represented by contour lines that are far
apart.
5. Plateaus, plains, and mountains are the three main types of landforms.
6. Elevation, relief, and slope on a topographic map are shown using symbols called
contour lines.
7. A hot and wet climate causes weathering to take place rapidly.
8. A ridge of till located at the farthest point reached by a glacier is called a terminal
moraine.
9. A U-shaped valley is evidence that an area was once covered by a glacier.
10. Wind carrying sand grains deposits the sand when the wind slows down or hits an
obstacle.
11. A river flowing across a wide flood plain begins to form looplike bends called meanders.
12. The contour lines that represent the top of a hill form a closed loop.
13. V-shaped contour lines pointing uphill indicate a valley.
14. The process by which wind removes surface materials is called deflation.
15. Erosion by water or wind can cause the loss of soil that is not protected by plant cover.
16. Mass movement is caused by gravity.
17. Most of the work of mixing humus within the soil is done by earthworms.
18. A marble statue is left exposed to the weather. Within a few years, the details on the
statue have begun to weather away. This weathering probably is caused by carbonic
acid in rainwater.
19. Landslides, mudflows, slump, and creep are all examples of mass movement.
20. A topographic map differs from a road map in that the topographic map shows
elevation, relief, and slope.
21. After the last ice age, stranded ice blocks left behind by the continental glacier melted
and formed kettles.
22. The agent of mechanical weathering in which rock is worn away by the action of other
rock particles is called abrasion.
23. Particles of clay and silt eroded and deposited by the wind are called loess.
24. The process in which rock fragments freeze to the bottom of a glacier and then are
carried away when the glacier moves is called plucking.
25. Plowing removed the grass from the Great Plains and exposed the soil. When a drought
struck the Great Plains during the 1930s, this action helped to cause the Dust Bowl.
26. Deltas are built up by deposition.
27. Living organisms in soil help to mix the soil and make humus.
28. In conservation plowing, dead weeds and stalks of the previous year’s crop are left in
the ground to retain moisture and hold the soil in place.
29. The texture, or particle size, of soil determines how much air and water the soil can
hold.
30. In a cross section of soil, the B horizon consists of clay, minerals, and little humus.
31. The most important factors in determining the rate of weathering are rock type and
climate.
32. A wide sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range is
called an alluvial fan.
33. Frost wedging causes mechanical weathering of rock by means of freezing and thawing
of water.
34. Soil that is rich in humus has high fertility.
35. When earthworms add their wastes to the soil, then die and decay in the soil, they are
contributing to the formation of humus.
36. Chemical weathering causes the mineral composition of rocks to change.
37. A permeable rock weathers easily because it contains many small, connected airspaces.
38. A contour line that forms a closed loop and has small dashes pointing to the inside of
the loop represents a depression in the ground.
39. Soil conservation describes the management of soil to prevent its destruction.
40. Granite lasts a long time when it is used for building in areas where the climate is mostly
cool and dry.
41. Soil formation begins with the weathering of bedrock.
42. If waves erode the soft rock along the base of a steep coast, the result may eventually
be a landform called a wave-cut cliff.
43. Water erosion begins when runoff from rainfall flows in a thin layer over the land in a
kind of erosion called sheet erosion.
44. Relief describes the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest parts of an
area.
45. The practice of plowing fields along the curves of a slope is called contour plowing.
46. The energy that produces ocean waves comes from wind blowing across the water’s
surface.
47. Geologists infer from the rounded, eroded shapes of the Appalachian Mountains that
the mountains have been eroding for millions of years.
48. The type of soil called loam is made up of nearly equal amounts of silt, sand, and clay.
49. A horizon is the soil layer where you find loam that is rich in humus.
50. Where a river flows from an area of harder rock to an area of softer rock, the softer rock
may wear away, eventually forming a drop called a waterfall.